Paul Muldoon’s first major publication following his move to the USA in 1987 was the vast and complex book of enigmas that is Madoc – A Mystery. Developing, often to an extravagant degree, many of the formal and thematic characteristics of his previous work – a fascination with alternative lives, native American cultures, sex, drugs, violence, expanded structures, narrative and semantic involution, the idiosyncratic renewal of traditional forms – the book delighted many and irritated others, including some of those who had championed Muldoon’s work from the beginning. The long title poem which dominates the collection (all but 11 of the 257 pages) is concerned with an account of the planned utopian voy

This article in full comprises 3062 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

Published 29 August 2005

Citation: Phillips, Ivan. "Madoc: A Mystery". The Literary Encyclopedia. 29 August 2005.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3776, accessed 9 February 2010.]